


Got You

by ponybologna



Category: Dragon Age, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Agender inquisitor, Blood, Other, implied hypothermia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-31
Updated: 2015-01-31
Packaged: 2018-03-09 20:23:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3263186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ponybologna/pseuds/ponybologna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Maker had heard him, and delivered an elf, of all things. [OLD WORK]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Got You

One moment, they were slogging through the snow with smoke and fire reddening the sky, and the next, the air was choked up with snow. The snap and swing of a trebuchet made them all turn and watch. There were a few seconds of quiet as the boulder arced through the air, and then the rush of snow and rock as the mountain came down. And then everything was white.

Thankfully, Cullen could make his feet walk without the use of his brain. He waded woodenly through knee-high snow with a kitchen maid half in and half out of his arms.

"Do y'think the Herald is alright?" she asked. Her voice was thin and reedy above the wind. Her cheeks were painfully red and her teeth chattered.

"I don't know."

"Sh-should we pray for them?" Cullen shrugged.

"Sure."

She licked her wind-chapped lips.

"O Maker, hear my cry: guide me through the blackest nights--" She could barely say the prayer through the chattering of her teeth. She mangled it, really. He remembered this one-- it got him through that night in the Circle Tower and the years after it. 

"Steel my heart against the temptations of the wicked," Cullen muttered. "Make me to rest in the warmest places. You know what-- Jenna, is it? Let's not use this one." She nodded and wiped blood and snot from her chin. His brain fumbled for words, for a minute, before he found the right verse.

"Though stung with a hundred arrows, though suffering from ailments both great and small, her Heart was strong, and she moved on."

"That's good," she said. She looked down. "I can't feel my f-feet."

"We'll find somewhere to rest and warm up," he promised her. On the tail end of his words he heard Varric shout up ahead. Unreal words. Impossible words. Perfect words.

" _It's_ _Lavellan_!"

Cullen's breath caught. The Maker had heard him-- and delivered an _elf_ , of all things. He laughed breathlessly and pressed forward.

Lavellan was white as a sheet when they found them. Their vallaslin stood out like ink on paper against their skin. Cullen, having passed Jenna off to more capable hands, swept them up and tucked them inside of his coat. Cassandra ran up.

"Are they--"

"Alive," he confirmed. "Only just."

She covered her face with her hands and whispered, "Maker have mercy."

Lavellan was easy enough to carry; less easy to warm up. Frost laced their lashes and hair, and a trickle of blood had frozen on their temple. Their hands, which were terribly bony and cold without the help of extreme temperatures, curled in his shirt like icy needles.

"Can you hear me?" Cullen whispered. Lavellan's eyes fluttered.

"Hi," they croaked. Cullen breathed, for real, this time.

"You idiot. I shouldn't have left you alone. Here--" he started stripping his gloves off with his teeth. "Put these on." Lavellan fumbled with the gloves.

"Promise me you'll hang in there, alright? We're going to find somewhere to rest," Cullen said. "You can't close your eyes."

"You have to help me," Lavellen murmured. "Can't keep 'em open."

"I will. After what you did back there-- I'll chew your own food for you."

Lavellan's smile was white and weak, but slow to fade.


End file.
